Eric Siegel wrote:
>
>    Robbin:
>
>    As you suggest, conceptual art work may be about the artist at
>    work, but it sure is presented as a final product in museums.

What we don't have enough of in the US are places for art like the New
York Botanical Gardens (where Eric tills the soil). I maintain people
are as interested in the artist's studio (garden) as in the art
produced.

.
>    But I am pretty convinced that anything that one can say about
>    Leonardo is not readily used as an example for anyone else.  He is, in
>    my eyes, exceptionalism personified.

On the contrary, it is to a great extent Leonardo who is responsible for
our modern concepts of art and artist. One because he made the
distinction between natura naturata and natura naturans, in other words
art that is a image of nature and art that is an act of creation, artist
as craftsman/artisan and artist as heroic artist/creator.

And, two, because the Leonardo story, like the Jesus or Alexander story,
has been reformed and retold over the years and still resonates.

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